{blackbabes} 'Charlie's Angels' is back in a new version on ABC

The Angels are taking flight again.

In the latest attempt to recycle classic TV series, ABC is remaking Charlie's Angels, the iconic series it aired from 1976 to 1981. The network hopes to make a big splash at Comic-Con International on Saturday, where the cast will sign a new poster for fans. Angels returns Sept. 22 (Thursdays, 8 ET/PT).

Drew Barrymore, who starred in the 2000 and 2003 movies and is producing the new series, says that "as a woman now and a girl then, and a really young girl when I watched the (original) show, there's something undeniably fun and empowering and exciting about Charlie's Angels."

The "essence" of the show "was pleasurable but empowering, sexy but friendly-to-women sexy," she says. "I love things where boys want to watch but girls feel welcome, and that's a very hard thing to succinctly do in anything."

But this Angels marks a departure from the show that turned Farrah Fawcett-Majors into a worldwide star and, by showcasing ample cleavage, inspired the phrase "jiggle TV." In the new version's pilot episode, one of the trio is murdered, leading Charlie to seek a replacement, Eve (Minka Kelly), bent on avenging her death.

"Being someone who did Scream, I always love when you feel like all bets are off," Barrymore says. "I'm always a fan of never feeling safe."

And the only one wearing a bikini is a buff Bosley (Ramon Rodriguez), now a more active "fourth Angel."

"We want to empower the women, not exploit them," says producer Alfred Gough. Not to worry: "At a certain point you will see the women in bikinis, but it didn't feel right in the pilot."

Gough and producing partner Miles Millar, who reimagined Superman with CW's Smallville, opted for a darker tone to heighten the stakes. Past versions centered on "three bored police detectives," Gough says. Now, "all the Angels have a past," and use their skills as they skirt the law to solve cases.

Kate (Annie Ilonzeh), the first black Angel, was a corrupt cop; Abby (Rachael Taylor) was a "Park Avenue princess" turned jewel thief. Eve stole cars. Even Bosley committed tax fraud.

New Angels aren't all angels

Leonard Goldberg, who produced Angels with Aaron Spelling and is also working on the new version, says, "These girls are probably more real in terms of women today: All three have flaws, all have gotten in trouble in the past, and Charlie's given them a second chance.

"That's totally different. In the original series … we never got too deep into the characters, what made them tick."

But Barrymore says it won't be all doom and gloom. "I don't think anyone wants miserable, angry Charlie's Angels. That would be, like, the worst thing you can do. But we wanted to ground it and get into the back stories; we wanted it to not be just bubbly girls who had capabilities."

Ilonzeh says "the tone is a lot more edgy and risky" but also "fun, flirty (and) sexy," and the show "really treats them like sisters. Kate is like the older sister of her Angels, and I was like, 'Literally, this girl is me and I have to get this job.'"

Other shifts: a nod to modern technology (iPads and Twitter feeds are featured in the pilot), and a move to sunny Miami, where production began Wednesday. "Sun and surf is in the DNA of Charlie's Angels," Gough says, "but L.A. doesn't feel exotic or glamorous the way it was 35 years ago."

Goldberg says the '70s series, created when he and Spelling had young daughters, was designed to show that "women could be beautiful, could be smart, could be empowered but could still kick (butt)" and "go beyond" the roles proscribed for them. He says some women's groups objected, but "the same people who criticized us in those early days years later held up Charlie's Angels as a show that brought women a step further."

Big expectations ahead

The new project has been in the works for two years; an early version set in New York City was entirely reworked. "We looked at the landscape of television and saw heroic women were starting to become more prominent," says Sony Pictures Television programming chief Zack Van Amburg.

Though Sony owns the rights to early Spelling shows (also including Hart to Hart and Fantasy Island), "it wasn't a grab for cash, or 'Let's get back into our library and find something a network will be excited about,'" says Sony's Jamie Erlicht.

Gough is aware of the "car-crash mentality" that sparks big initial ratings for TV reboots (Bionic Woman, Melrose Place) followed by an inevitable comedown, though Hawaii Five-0 stuck this year.

Any time that viewers "come to a movie or TV series with built-in expectations, that's a complicating factor," Van Amburg says. "We have to live up to them and exceed them."